Category: eBooks

Around here, we love books. And we love discussing books. So we thought it would be fun to set up a virtual book club! If you’re interested, read on for more details, and don’t worry-we’re thinking this is a once a month or so deal, so you’ll have plenty of time to read the book before the discussion starts.

What do you do when you have numerous interviews with the surviving members of the Grateful Dead and have only published a small number of them? If you are musician and journalist Alan Paul, you pull the interviews together and publish them as an Amazon Kindle Single. The result? The eBook-only Reckoning: Conversations with the Grateful Dead by Alan Paul.

My son loves (LOVES) the book “Goodnight iPad“. I’ve read it so many times I have it memorized, so I usually “read” it to him once it is lights-out. Half the time he’s asleep before I finish. Last night I realized some of the book’s technology references are already outdated, and it’s only four years old!

If you have an Amazon Prime account you probably know you can grab a free Kindle book each month from a set of four choices. But did you know that when Samsung retired Reader’s Hub and partnered with Amazon for ‘Kindle for Samsung’ that they started giving out a free book each month? Neither did I, but it’s true!

I love the comic The Oatmeal, and highlighted a speech given by Oatmeal cartoonist Matthew Inman at BAHfest on my personal blog. I was contacted about a new dark humor book called Russian Optimism, which they describe as having innocent titles and horrible endings. The book is an illustrated coffee table book with illustrations and translations.

A few weeks ago I was reminiscing about my favorite science fiction book from my childhood. It was an anthology of short stories, and some intense Googling determined it was out of print. My search led me to the local library, and after poking around for just a few minutes, I cancelled my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

This has been a roller coaster week for eBook fans. If you’re an Amazon Kindle fan, it’s been a positive coaster; there are new Kindles galore! On the other hand, if you’re a Barnes and Noble NOOK fan, you just lost the ability to download NOOK books directly to your computer. Disappointed? Happy? Unsure? Read on for more details!

We are on vacation in Woodstock, NY, and the local bookstore had a very entertaining comic in the window. If the picture isn't clear, it shows a 90lb weakling getting stronger from reading the complete works of Plato in hardcover, then smacking for using an ebook reader on the beach. Certainly one advantage to hardcover!

Amazon has officially announced Kindle Unlimited, a $9.99 all you can read monthly ebook subscription. This was leaked earlier in the week, but now we have more details on this ebook and audiobook service!

Amazon may come under fire for their dominant position in ebooks, but they are number one for more reasons than just price aggression. Not all retailers can leverage the various versions of books to their advantage like Amazon can, and they’re showcasing it with their new “Whispersync for Voice” upgrades program.

Looks like Barnes and Noble has hit upon a new way to keep their NOOK business relevant, while still getting out of the costly hardware space — they’re partnering with Samsung to make NOOK branded Galaxy Tablets! This looks like a win for everyone. B&N will continue to sell tablets, and Samsung has a new avenue to showcase their products.

Target has sold books and eBook readers in their stores for years, and now they are sticking a very tentative toe into the world of selling digital books. No, you won’t be heading to Target.com for your next eBook (yet), but they are partnering with new website Librify, which is a social network/eBook subscription service coming this summer.

If you’ve heard of or use Kobo Books regularly, there’s a good shot you are not alone. Kobo has come a long way in a few short years, from starting as Shortcovers in 2009 to being purchased by Rakuten in 2012. Now they have some truly brag-worthy news-according to The Digital Reader, revenues are up 44%!

For the true fan of music, genre doesn’t matter in appreciation of an iconic and legendary artist or group. This is true for Miles Davis, Beethoven, Michael Jackson, or the Allman Brothers Band. Alan Paul’s new book One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band seeks to illuminate their history for new and old fans alike!

One of the hardest things about quitting my job in a bookstore was giving up on easy access to and an employee discount on books … lots and lots of books. I love to read, and I’ve deeply embraced eBooks. So I was very excited to try Oyster Books, the so-called “Netflix of eBooks”, with a similar all-you-can-read flat rate …

Barnes and Noble tried to bury some very bad news by releasing it during CES-NOOK sales for the holiday season were dreadful. Plenty were quick to blame Amazon’s lower prices, but while that’s no doubt a factor there’s some bigger issues here than prices on a few bestsellers…like marketing, and whether B&N plans to maintain the NOOK another year!

Traditional publishing is terrified of the rise of ebooks from Amazon, but it’s not just ebooks that threaten the publishing world. Crowdfunding is useful and disruptive for more than just gadgets, and can be used to fund books as well. In fact, John Bigg’s novel Mytro is being funded successfully via IndieGoGo!

My six month old son received lots of great books for Christmas and Hannukah this year, but the one we reach for more than any other these days is definitely “Goodnight iPad“. For one, he really likes the rhyming and the pictures, and two, I am pretty sure he wonders if the book is specifically about his house!

It feels like after the initial excitement of eBook readers and eBooks taking off, the market had leveled off. There’s still book growth, but as tablets overtook dedicated readers, and Amazon settled happily into the number one spot, the improvements slowed precipitously. But now that Barnes and Noble is showing a new willingness to enter the market, it looks like …

Does iOS 7 have you wondering what happened to your iPhone? Is the new OS making you wish you’d never upgraded your iPad? Do you like iOS 7, but wonder if you are getting the most out of it? If you answered yes to any of these, download this free e-book and master iOS! Grab it and get started.